Infections

Kraft Foods Inc. said Chief Executive Roger Deromedi has been suffering from a viral infection but will return to work May 10 -- ending the company's two-week silence on his previously undisclosed illness and condition. The nation's largest food company did not explain why it had chosen to keep the details surrounding the hospitalization of its 50-year-old CEO such a tightly held secret for so long despite calls by investors to release more information.

The medical odyssey of 14-year-old Jeff Thornton, who died after developing gangrene from frostbite, is a testament to how exposure to severe cold can lead to infection. Exposure to cold shrinks blood vessels in the feet and hands, pinching off circulation and leaving the limbs without enough blood flow to fight infection in those areas. Tissues also die because of the lack of blood, providing a fertile breeding ground for bacteria.

Rather than endorse mandatory restrictions, federal officials appear likely to recommend that AIDS-infected health care professionals voluntarily refrain from performing surgery and other invasive procedures or seek expert advice before continuing to do so.

A woman pleaded guilty to causing the death of her 15-month-old son, whose severe diaper rash led to a fatal infection. Amy Livingston, 27, pleaded guilty in Ebensburg to involuntary manslaughter in the boy's death and to child endangerment for not treating a rash on another son. Her son Harley died in December of sepsis and dehydration. His brother, Hunter, 4, was successfully treated. Doctors testified at a preliminary hearing that the baby could have survived with basic care.

Although some medical authorities have said the chances of contracting an AIDS virus infection after one sexual encounter with a virus carrier are low, new research indicates that it can happen, government scientists reported Thursday. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control were puzzled by the findings, which they said suggested that sexual behavior alone does not explain heterosexual transmission of HIV, the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Stanford scientists have made a major advance in AIDS research by transmitting the disease to mice that have a human immune system. The infected mice, experts said, promise to be valuable tools for studying the development of AIDS as well as for testing new drugs and vaccines. The production of mice with human immune systems was announced only three months ago, after the Stanford scientists had implanted fetal human immune tissues into a special strain of immune-deficient mice.

The number of health-care workers accidentally infected with the AIDS virus is rising, researchers reported here Friday, while the possibility of using drugs such as AZT to protect them remains in question. Thirty-four cases of occupationally acquired AIDS virus infection have been reported to federal health officials. New studies indicate that many health-care workers are not routinely taking recommended steps to avoid exposure to patients' blood.

American distance runner Mary Decker Slaney has had an unspecified infection while preparing for the Olympic Games, her coach, Luiz de Oliveira, said Thursday. Slaney left for Seoul Wednesday after missing two weeks of training, according to the coach, who declined to identify the infection. Slaney could not be reached for comment. De Oliveira said he noticed that Slaney, 30, wasn't in top shape during a 3,000-meter race in Zurich, Switzerland, Aug. 17.

Serious infections can retard or even halt the growth of tumors by blocking the growth of blood vessels necessary for nourishing the cancers, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. The findings, reported in the May 15 Journal of Immunology, suggest that infected animals might be a new source of angiogenesis inhibitors, the team said.

Triathlete Bernard Donner underwent surgery Friday morning to save his left leg from the ravages of "flesh-eating bacteria," which apparently entered his body through a shaving cut as he bicycled near his Santa Barbara home Sunday. Donner remained in critical condition, but it is encouraging that the streptococcus infection has not spread beyond the leg, said Dr. A. Richard Grossman, medical director of the Sherman Oaks Hospital burn center. Grossman said he and Dr.